


Line Work and Love Notes

by betheflame



Series: Stucky Bingo 2019 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, Artist Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Foster Kid Bucky Barnes, Idiots in Love, M/M, Pepper & Steve Childhood Best Friends, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Stucky Bingo 2019, Uncle Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-10-20 05:29:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20670083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: Professional sculptor Steve Rogers wants to get a tattoo to celebrate his newest commission. Tattoo artist Bucky Barnes is only too happy to oblige.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone who voted in the Twitter poll - I hadn't even written a word of this when you voted, but then insomnia and my muse got to together and here you go! 
> 
> Stucky Bingo Fill: Tattoo Shop AU  
CapSepTender Entry
> 
> Huge thanks to everyone who pompomed this on the Stucky Bingo and Stuckony Discords. Special thanks to my betas for this one [HogwartstoAlexandria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria) and [Bill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bill_Longbow) for being absolute dolls of comments. Little do they know I'm going to make them beta chapter two when this thing earns its rating.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Pepper smiled widely at Steve. “You’ve been using that as your signature since before you switched mediums. I can’t think of a better tattoo. _What_, Morgan?”

Her 6-year-old daughter had begun a steady stream of calling _mommy, mommy, mommy_ several moments before. 

“I have a question for Uncle Steve,” the child said solemnly.

Pepper blinked at her daughter and looked at Steve. “He’s right here.”

“Well,” Morgan said with all the indignity only an elementary school student could muster, “you were talking and so I was waiting.”

“Waiting while talking is your dad’s form of waiting,” Steve replied. “But whuddya need, Bug?”

“Can we go and paint the pots yet?”

“No, Bug,” he ruffled her hair. “They’re not out of the kiln yet. Tomorrow.”

She sighed and huffed herself dramatically towards the kitchen, where Tony was busy making dinner - which meant Pepper or Steve would be calling for take-out any moment. 

“That sass is all her father,” Pepper sighed. 

“Uh huh,” Steve replied, not making eye contact with his childhood best friend. 

“It is!”

“Sure, Pep,” Steve said, still refusing to make eye contact. 

Pepper screwed her face into a smirk. “Anyway, have you chosen a place?”

“For the art?” Steve clarified and, at her nod, handed her his StarkPad. “Winter’s Edge. It’s over in Brooklyn - I think Bed-Stuy. But I like the guy’s work.”

Pepper flipped through a slideshow and made approving noises. “It says there’s five of them, though. Do you know whose is whose?”

Steve nodded. “This one,” he pointed to the one Pepper had open on screen, “is Sam Wilson’s. I like him, but not as much as I like James Barnes’ stuff. And he does more with lettering, which is what I'm looking for.”

“Oh gosh,” Pepper breathed. “Yes, he’s the guy.”

Steve grinned. “Here - look at his Instagram.”

Pepper did just that and let out a low whistle. 

“What?”

“Did _you_ look at his Instagram?”

“Yes,” Steve said calmly, knowing exactly where she was going. 

“Because he is really fucking hot.”

“That’s beside the point, Virginia,” Steve said. 

“Oh, Steven, I need you to lick that jaw for literally all of us,” Pepper smirked. “For every male-attracted human on the planet, please take one for the team, here.”

“Well, perhaps after he sets down the tattoo gun.”

“Just squeeze it in, all I’m saying.”

“You’re the worst.”

“Proudly.”

________________________

Steve had been thinking about getting a tattoo for years, but a million things had held him back. There was the fact that his childhood had been filled with needles and having one of them recreationally vibrating across his bicep hadn’t been high on the priority list. Then there was the money of it all, and a few other times he just couldn’t decide what was a permanent part of his life enough to mark it on his body.

But then Tony and Pepper had given him an “We Owe You Any Art You Want” voucher for Christmas and told him it could be art on his body or art to hang on his wall and he decided to take the plunge. 

Standing outside Winter’s Edge was - however - a lot. 

_Come on, Rogers. Just open the fucking door._

“Hi!” The cheerful brunette at the front desk greeted him once he did. “Do you have an appointment?” 

“I-” Steve’s voice cracked slightly, so he swallowed and started over. “I do, with James?”

She hit a few buttons on her tablet. “Steve?” At his nod, she handed him some forms to fill out and showed him to a waiting room to accomplish the task. 

_This is just a consult_, he told himself. _And I designed the whole thing already. All I need to do is walk through the door and talk to the guy who looks like my wet dreams come to life and not, you know, assault him while he has a weapon in his hands._ __

_ _He handed the forms back to the woman at the desk when he finished and played a few rounds of Emoji Blitz before he heard his name getting called. “Steve Rogers?”_ _

_ _Steve stood up and made sure not to swallow his tongue. “Me.” He offered a lame wave to the man in front of him, whose long hair was tied in a haphazard bun and secured with what looked like yarn. His jeans were painted on and tucked into well worn Chelsea boots, and the look was completed by a black tank top just north of see-through. Steve’s dick took notice as he forced his manners to activate. “I’m Steve Rogers.”_ _

_ _Handsome Hipster stuck out his hand. “James Barnes, I’m your artist. Come on back.”_ _

_ __ _

________________________

“So, what do you do for a living?” Bucky asked the Greek God of a human currently in his chair. _His shoulders don’t even fucking fit_.

“I’m a sculptor,” <s>Greek God</s> Steve replied. 

_Oh, I bet you fucking are_, Bucky muttered to himself. _Do you sculpt yourself, too, because jeeeeeesssus_. “Oh, that’s cool,” he said instead. “What kind of stuff?”

“Um, do you know that new one outside Stark Tower?”

“Is that you? No shit, that thing is really cool.”

Steve blushed - _oh fuck, hot and humble_ \- and nodded. “It was my largest finished commission, so I wanted to celebrate.” He fumbled on his phone for a few seconds before handing it over to Bucky. “That’s my signature - the one I chisel into everything - and I want it on my inner bicep, if you think that would work.”

“Well,” Bucky raised a saucy eyebrow. “I certainly have a wide enough surface to work with.”

The blush deepened and Bucky decided right then and there he had to get his mouth on this man somehow. “Line work, I think, maybe some shading? I wasn’t looking for any color.”

Bucky hummed to himself and studied the image closely. “Well, I’ll be honest, we can go straight black lines, but I think some grey shading might work well to make it look like like it’s almost stone against your skin.”

“You can do that?”

Bucky nodded and reached for his own phone, scrolling through some finished client works. “Yeah, see here? I can make the area you have between the G and the R have a little more depth.”

“That sounds great, actually, I like that,” Steve smiled up at Bucky and Bucky swore his heart paused for a beat. _What the fuck is with this dude._

Bucky busily began prepping the area Steve indicated for placement - talking Steve through the whole process as he went. _(“I have to disinfect the area and shave it a bit, I know it seems like you don’t have hair there, but you do.”)_ He asked Steve about how he got into sculpting _(“I was sick a lot as a kid, and there was a pottery guy who came to the hospital during one of my long stays and he taught me how to throw clay and I got addicted to that. Then, when I was healthy enough to stand for long periods of time, I liked the idea of working with more kinds of materials. So, I still throw, but mostly for fun. I’m teaching my niece right now. For money, I mostly work with stone.”)_ and surprised himself by offering up more details that he normally does when asked why he got into tattooing. 

“Well,” he began, as he worked on the stencil for Steve’s tattoo. “I was one of those kids who just needed something to do with my hands or I’d get into trouble.” Steve’s gentle huff of laughter told Bucky he wasn’t alone. “But I also bounced around in the foster system a bit and dropped outta high school and worked in a mechanic’s shop for a while. I went through a rough time,” Bucky’s favorite euphemism for the accidental drug running he did to make money to eat, which Clint had pulled him out of, “and I ended up getting to know Clint, the guy who owned this place.”

“Owned?”

“Yeah, he sold it to me a bit back, me and my business partner, Sam. He’s got a kid, well, kinda, anyway, and he wanted to focus on being there for her,” Bucky sat up. “Here’s the stencil, let’s make sure it works.”

He crossed back from the desk to the chair and was once again up close and personal with human perfection. He taped the stencil in place, and then held up a mirror for Steve so he could see what the finished product would look like. Getting a swift, but definitive nod, Bucky began to prep his equipment. 

“So, did Clint start you here?”

Bucky nodded. “And got me into therapy, which I was a total brat about, but it was art therapy because I’d told him I thought best with my hands.”

Bucky swore he heard Steve mutter something like ‘I bet you do’, but if he paused to follow that innuendo, he’d end up accidentally tattooing himself. 

“So, one thing led to another and now I’m here,” Bucky smiled. The pair settled into a semi-comfortable silence as Bucky finished loading the ink into the gun and setting up the rest of the workspace. He explained the small cups of water, and the sterile needles, and then got to work. 

“Some people find that talking helps,” Bucky murmured. His lips were so close to Steve’s ear… “But that’s up to you.”

________________________

Steve swallowed and focused very hard on not moving his arm. “I, uh, I work for my best friend’s husband.”

“Well, that has to be fun.”

_Okay, so he can’t know I have a kink for people blowing on my neck. He can’t. Can he?_

“It actually is,” Steve affirmed, casting his eyes about the room to anywhere but James. “Pepper and I grew up together and went to art school together and have basically been inseparable since our mothers decided to start dressing us alike to freak out strangers.” Steve heard a soft chuckle. “She met Tony, like, sixteen, seventeen years back, I guess now, our first year. I was finishing up at RISD and she went to a job interview to manage a gallery and left with a boyfriend. It’s his gallery I work for, technically, I guess, but I’m telling this all wrong, I’m sorry, I’m not good at stories.”

“Better with your hands as well?” James asked quietly. 

“I’m good with other parts, too,” Steve replied equally quietly.

A zap of electricity went between the two of them and Steve chose silence for the rest of the procedure.

________________________

“There,” Bucky sat back and admired his handiwork. The protective wrap was secure, Darcy had arranged payment and given Steve all of his after-care instructions, and now it was time for the best looking and possibly sweetest man Bucky had met in an absolute age to walk out of his life.

“If there’s any problems-”

“Yeah,” Steve grinned. “I’ll call, I promise.”

“Well, good,” Bucky shuffled his feet slightly and then went to open the door back out to the lobby. “I mean, anyway, okay, so, it was nice meeting you.” He offered his hand out to Steve and when the taller man took it, Bucky’s knees nearly buckled. 

“James,” Steve nodded. “Thanks so much for this. I’ll recommend you to everyone I know.”

“Bucky,” he blurted. “My friends call me Bucky.”

Steve narrowed his eyes slightly but didn’t let go of Bucky’s hand. “I’m still just Steve. Kinda boring. Tony calls me Cap, and Morgan calls me Uncle, and now I’m doing the rambling thing again, so Bucky. Thanks again.”

The men paused just too long for either to ignore what was happening. And yet, they both managed to as Steve made his way for the door. Bucky watched him go with a feeling of dread in his gut. 

“When are you guys going out?” Darcy asked from behind Bucky, causing him to jump. 

“Jesus, Darce. We’re not.”

“The fuck?” She hit him upside the head. 

“What?” He rubbed where she smacked. “He’s probably not gay.”

“Are you fucking _having a laugh_,” Darcy threw up her hands. “He nearly took you apart with his eyes and I guarantee he’d do it with his tongue if you’d let him and please let him because I want to climb him like a fucking tree and he didn’t even glance at my tits. James. That man is for you. Go get him, _please_.”

Bucky blinked at her twice before deciding that the worst thing that could happen is that he wouldn’t catch Steve before the other man drove away. He sprinted out the door and towards the parking lot down the street, only to run straight into the man himself. 

“Hi, will you go out with me?” Bucky blurted, nearly into Steve’s chest. 

Steve’s laugh reverberated through Bucky’s body. “I was coming back to ask you the same thing. Yes. You free tomorrow night?”

“I’m free tonight and tomorrow night and now I sound needy,” Bucky chuckled. 

“I’m babysitting Morgan - my niece - tonight, but tomorrow? What time?”

“Seven? Meet me here? I’m closing tomorrow.”

“Perfect,” Steve smiled widely and Bucky felt it down to his toes. 

“See you tomorrow,” Bucky smiled back as they parted ways - each glancing back over their shoulders like the smitten idiots they were.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stucky Bingo Fill: Electricity 
> 
> MASSIVE thanks to [Sablier Bloque](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sablier_bloque/pseuds/sablier_bloque) for her genius beta on this. My first published smut scene, y'all!

“Pal, I have no idea why you are so in your head about a date, but you have got to calm down,” Sam wasn’t even looking at Bucky as he admonished his best friend. 

“Okay, Taylor Swift, thank you, but you didn’t see him.”

“I did, he should be nervous,” Darcy called from the front desk. 

“Thank you!” Bucky gestured to Darcy. 

“Okay, this is nonsense,” Sam put down his coffee mug and pointed at Bucky. “I have it on good authority that you’re fucking gorgeous.”

“What authority is that,” Darcy called smugly as Sam flipped her off. 

“The literal worst day of my life was when Tits McGee over there and my wife became friends,” Sam lamented to Bucky. “Literal worst.”

“Well,” Bucky chuckled, “considering that happened before you met any of us, your whole life’s been cursed then.”

“Yeah, maybe the statement was a little hyperbolic,” Sam consented. 

“Carol said she Google-stalked the sculptor last night,” Darcy brandished her phone. “And it’s Queen Tits McGee, don’t forget, Samwise.”

Bucky rolled his lips between his teeth to keep from laughing. He had known Darcy Lewis and Captain Carol Wilson since elementary school. Sam came into their group when Carol dragged him home from college, and they’d added a few others to their troupe since then, but despite all the people that had treated Bucky’s life like a revolving door that they could casually exit through, Darcy, Sam, and Carol were his _family_. 

Which meant they were all up in each other’s business to inappropriate levels, had inside jokes no one could remember the origin of any longer, and fiercely loved each other. 

They also talked shit at each other and took the piss more than anything else, but Bucky also knew that if he just said what was on his mind, he’d be heard. 

“Okay, fine,” Bucky held up his hand. “He’s hot as fuck, that’s no secret, but I don’t think he’s a fuck-and-run candidate, that’s what’s freaking me out. He seems kind and smart and a big dork. He calls his niece ‘Bug’ because she was premature and he was really scared he’d squish her accidentally. So, yes, I want to take him apart with my tongue because I have an eyes and libido, but I’m a nervous wreck because I might like him, too.”

He finished his monologue to slightly stunned silence from Sam and a big grin from Darcy. 

“Well, then,” Sam cleared his throat and then winked at Bucky. “Let’s make sure you get out of here on time.”

Which had been a great plan, until Carol called and said she was having weird pains and could Sam please meet her at the hospital in case something was wrong with the baby and of course Darcy went with him. Their part-time staff - Wanda, Pietro, and Val - were all off that day, so when the deluge hit exactly 17 minutes before Steve was due to arrive, Bucky had been all alone. 

He heard a knock on the door and knew it was Steve. He glanced down at his significantly non-date appropriate clothing, blew his hair out of his face, and made for the front door. 

“Well, here goes nothing.”

___________________ 

_What does one bring to a date these days?_ Tony and Pepper had told him that no one brings things any more, but his mom had raised him to never show up empty handed to someone’s life. Which is why Steve was standing outside of Winter’s Edge the next evening - in the middle of a thunderstorm of epic proportions - holding a book he’d found earlier that day on the history of tattoo ink.

_Dork, party of one_, Steve chastised himself. 

He’d shown up well after closing and the door was locked and his umbrella was not standing up to the storm at all. He banged on the door again and prayed Bucky heard him soon. 

“Oh, fuck, I’m so sorry!” Bucky was breathless as the door finally opened, as though he had run from somewhere in the building. “There’s some flooding in the storeroom and I was trying to - it doesn’t matter, get in here.”

Steve dripped his way into the foyer and thrust the wrapped book awkwardly at Bucky. “I thought flowers were kinda trite, so I bought you a book instead.”

Bucky blushed, just the littlest bit, and his eyes twinkled. Steve had to give direct instructions to his dick to calm down. “That’s so thoughtful! Oh fuck, you’re soaked. Hold on, we have a bunch of towels-”

He was cut off by the lights flickering enough to cause each man to freeze. 

“How can I help?” Steve responded. “Are there things that need to be unplugged in case there’s a surge?”

Bucky shook his head. “We did all of that already. I was about to get changed for dinner when I noticed the leak and then I got distracted.”

“Well, then let’s see what we can do about the leak,” Steve smiled. 

“I’ll get you a towel along the way,” Bucky said and Steve noticed that his eyes lingered on Steve’s abdomen. So, point for Pepper on the wardrobe. The fabric is as clingy as she said it would be. 

Bucky turned and motioned for Steve to follow him, which allowed a truly fantastic look at Bucky’s ass - which wasn’t a feature Steve had been aware of until that moment. _God in her heaven, have mercy, he is going to be the death of me_. 

“It’s this one wall, it’s been a problem forever,” Bucky indicated to where the water was flowing in. “I’ve already lifted everything off the floor, so now we just have to hope the water doesn’t rise higher.”

“Do you want to try plugging the hole?” Steve asked and caught Bucky’s snort at the words ‘plug’ and ‘hole’. 

“Um-” Bucky’s eyes cast about the storeroom and landed on a box of towels. “I owe you one of these anyway.”

Steve took a few towels from the box and then made the split-second decision to just take off his shirt. It was soaked anyway and it was something he’d do even if he wasn’t hoping to get laid, so why not. 

The look in Bucky’s eyes was confirmation he made the right call.

___________

Bucky had been holding it together, he really had.

And then the fucker took. off. his. shirt.

So now he was standing in the storeroom, with water up to his ankles staring at a half-naked man who walked off the pages of Playgirl and right into Bucky’s life, and the asshole had the _audacity_ to take his shirt off. 

No one was getting out of this date alive. 

Bucky hissed in a sharp breath and decided to just put it out there. “Explain to me how you got so perfect. Are you afraid to eat bread?”

Steve blinked twice and then dissolved into a howl of laughter, which caused Bucky to do the same and the pair kept laughing until a high-pitched buzzing noise broke through, and the lights flickered and went dark. 

“Well, fuck,” Bucky sighed before the drone of the emergency alarm drowned him out. He sloshed over to the code box in the corner of the room and entered the code to silence the alarm and was about to tell Steve to just go home when his phone rang. 

“Well, that was the alarm company,” Bucky said as he hung up the phone a few minutes later. “They need me to stay here until someone comes out because one of the systems is short-circuiting. Not in a way that we can be in danger, or anything, I checked. But still, I guess we’ll have to reschedule,” Bucky says, sighing deeply. 

“Why?” Steve asked. 

“This isn’t much of a date,” Bucky laughed. “I made you do manual labor, your clothes got ruined, and now I can’t even feed you.”

“I mean, we don’t have to eat,” Steve shrugged. “Food, anyway. We don’t have to eat food.”

Bucky’s eyes snap to Steve’s in the lowlight to search out his meaning. Even if Steve was being an awkward dork and _not_ implying what Bucky thought he was, they still had to change locations. _I am never going to be able to be in this room again if we follow through on what I hope is his idea_, Bucky’s one remaining brain cell responded. 

“Chocolate,” he squawked out. 

“What?” Steve shook his head, as though clearing it, the mood clearly broken. 

“The breakroom. It has a couch, and it’s not flooded, and there’s usually a stash of blankets since some of our customers get really cold when we’re working on them, and if you really want to stay -”

“I do.”

“Then, breakroom.”

_____________________

“I’m not afraid of bread,” Steve said a while later after they were settled on the couch. Both had stripped out of their wet clothes - Steve was pissed it was so dark because he was really looking forward to seeing more of Bucky - and wrapped themselves in some fluffy blankets. They’d raided the fridge to find four bars of chocolate -belonging to Darcy, the front desk woman, - and two things of greek yogurt that at least smelled in date.

“Then did you make a deal with a crossroads demon? Because I have been looking at men since my balls dropped and damn, son.” Even though Steve couldn’t see Bucky clearly in the low light from the security back-up lights, he felt Bucky’s eyes drag up his body as his voice growled out that last phrase. 

“Well, I mean, I make my living hauling rocks and breaking them into pieces,” Steve replied. “That helps. How do you get your ass to look like that?”

“Oh, you like my ass?” Steve heard the smirk in Bucky’s voice. 

“Umhm,” Steve affirmed. He shifted himself, placing the debris from ‘dinner’ on the floor and moving towards the other man. He’d been hard since Bucky’s eyes swept his body back in the breakroom and he’d been grateful to shed his jeans for reasons other than wet denim being pretty much the worst. 

“Squats,” Bucky’s voice was low and coming closer towards Steve. _Good. Same page._

"Your mouth, too. Seems pretty nice."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Like," his own mouth felt dry all of the sudden, anticipation bubbling within him. He licked his lips. "I bet you taste really good."

“Wanna find out, Hercules?”

“With pleasure.” Steve wrapped his hand around the back of Bucky’s neck and pulled towards him with a force that caught him off guard. Bucky’s lips were as soft as they looked - Steve hated to call lips ‘pillowy’ but Bucky’s demanded it. Soft at first, maybe even tentative, but once Bucky breathed just a little, Steve took the opportunity to work his tongue through Bucky’s lips and deepen their connection. Their teeth clashed slightly - noses and teeth were always just a little awkward after all - but then Steve gasped slightly in shock when Bucky nipped at his bottom lip. _Yes, please, and thank you._

Their tongues explored and delved into each other’s mouths… the kiss turning more and more heated and passionate. Soon, Steve had Bucky on his back and was slowly biting his way down Bucky’s chest. 

“I want my mouth on you,” Steve breathed. 

“Well,” Bucky replied and then let out a hiss as Steve began to worry his right nipple with his teeth. “I don’t exactly keep condoms in my shop, so I think we may have to delay that dream.”

“You musta been a shitty boy scout,” Steve grinned against Bucky’s chest. “Lucky for you, I got my Eagle Scout badge.”

“Jeans?”

“Put two fresh ones in my wallet before coming here.”

“You thought I was that easy?”

“I thought you were that beautiful,” Steve corrected, pausing his work to meet Bucky’s eyes. “And I live in hope.” 

Even in the low light, Steve could see that Bucky’s pupils were blown - he was sure his were, too - and if were possible for his dick to get harder at that moment, it would have. 

Steve continued to nibble his way down Bucky’s abdomen until he hit the cloth of his boxers. “Hey handsome, a little help here?” 

Bucky shucked his boxers so fast that they clumsily caught on his erection. He gasped just a little at the friction on the head, and Steve’s eyes sparked. 

The only sound besides the rain outside was the soft rip of the condom package and each of their labored breathing as Steve slowly rolled the condom onto Bucky and followed the action with his mouth. Blowing someone through latex wasn’t his favorite, but he was a safety-first kinda guy, so he’d gotten used to it. And he wasn’t kidding when he said he’d been an Eagle Scout - being prepared had been drilled into him at a young age. 

What he wasn’t prepared for was one James Barnes and how responsive he was to Steve’s mouth. As Steve licked a stripe along the underside of Bucky’s dick, it jumped and reacted and soon followed the motion of Steve’s tongue. Steve took one hand and started playing with Bucky’s balls - the way he personally liked it done, which was his default on the first go with someone else - and placed the other on Bucky’s hip for leverage. 

A gentle squeeze to Bucky’s ball sack brought hands into Steve’s hair and soon Bucky was guiding Steve into a rhythm that made Steve super grateful he’d started working on his gag reflex at 16. 

“Steve,” Bucky breathed. “I am, Jesus Christ, you are some sort of god, I am so close, can you scrape your teeth just a little?”

Steve cocked an eyebrow. He hated teeth, but sure. He scraped his bottom teeth ever so gently over the head and was rewarded with a rush of warmth into the condom and a scream out of Bucky so primal that it did something to Steve’s inner caveman. 

“I’m not even sure I want to know how you’re so good at that, but I feel like I need to hand you money.”

Steve laughed. “Pleasure was all mine, gorgeous. Trust me. You are something else.”

Their eyes met in the low light as Bucky smirked lazily. “I want to return the favor, but you’ll need to give me a minute to regrow the bones you just sucked out of me.”

“Give me time to get cleaned up. I’m assuming you got wet wipes in this joint?”

Bucky directed him to the stash of wet wipes - making sure to clarify that they had ones with antiseptic and without - and rearranged himself slightly on the couch to allow for the pair to snuggle once the task was done. The couch was deep enough for Bucky to remain on his back and for Steve to be half draped on him and half buried in the crook of the couch and Steve would have probably changed his address to that couch and that position if given the option.

______________

“So,” Bucky said.

“So,” Steve smiled, and Bucky felt the brush of his beard against his chest as his mouth moved. 

“I regret to inform you that I’ll be demanding a second date. Preferably without flooding, and with food that’s not stolen, but we’re going to keep the dirty theme going,” Bucky smirked and let his left hand wander through Steve’s sandy-colored mop. 

_I think he just purred. I think I made the most beautiful man alive purr,_ Bucky crowed internally with pride.

“Well fuck,” Steve said. “Because I was going to suggest we just keep the natural disaster theme going. I have more pairs of shoes we can ruin.”

Bucky blanched. “You need to let me replace whatever got ruined.”

“Nah,” Steve lifted his head to stare directly into Bucky’s eyes. “Other ways of paying me back.”

Steve began to crawl up Bucky’s body, but was interrupted by the shrill tone of Bucky’s phone ringing. It was the alarm company, letting them know that a technician was only about ten minutes out, and they both knew the date was wrapping up. Steve offered to leave, but Bucky cut him off with a kiss.

“You don’t have to,” Bucky smiled softly. “I mean, only if you want-”

“I don’t want to.”

They grinned at each other like idiots for a few beats, and then Steve started asking questions about the shop while they waited for the technician. Bucky was only too happy to answer said questions, since they prevented him from throwing Steve back down on the couch and straddling him again… which, while potentially good for Bucky’s heart and definitely good for his dick, would be detrimental to the adulting which needed to happen. 

After the alarm had been fixed, and Steve said he’d be happy to stay and help Bucky put the shop back to rights. 

Instead, Bucky pulled him in for a long kiss. “Nah,” he smiled as they parted. “I need to adult here and you being around means I will be incapable of that. So, give me your number, and we can set something up where we maybe eat real food and don’t get wet except for intentionally?”

Steve smiled broadly “You got a deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works.
> 
> Next chapter's a fluff fest: Steve takes Morgan to her swimming lesson and Bucky tags along.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Morgan finally meets Uncle Steve's new boyfriend and cuteness ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Buckybear and Ashbobo in the Stuckony server for the beta assist!
> 
> Happy Steve Bingo Fill: Swimming   
Stucky Bingo Fill: Free Space

“She’s a really friendly kid, Buck, she’s gonna love you,” Steve reassured his boyfriend of three months. Bucky had met everyone else important to Steve, but they’d been waiting on Morgan until Pepper and Tony gave the go-ahead. 

_“It’s not that we don’t think you’re wonderful,” Pepper assured Bucky. “It’s just that Morgan gets attached very quickly, so we just want to be careful.”_

_Bucky waved her concerns away. “Pepper, she’s your kid. You have peanut butter older than me and Steve’s relationship. It’s your call.”_

_The plan was for Steve to take Morgan to her YMCA swimming lessons, per usual, and then go out for lunch, also per usual. She knew that Uncle Steve’s boyfriend was coming to swimming, but that she had the choice to invite him to lunch or not. _

“She’s your functional _daughter_, Stevie,” Bucky laughed as they approached the Starks’ front door. “This is a big deal.” 

Steve placed his hand on Bucky’s arm to stop him. “Hey, look at me.”

Bucky shoved his hands in his pockets, which Steve knew he only did when he was nervous, but met Steve’s eyes. 

“It’s okay. At the end of the day, this is you and me.”

Bucky shook his head. “Relationships don’t work like that, pal. We’re both bringing families into this. Mine is just a bundle of dysfunctional adults and Darcy. Yours is -”

“One dysfunctional man-child, two hyper functional women, and Morgan,” Steve finished with a grin. Bucky chuckled and then they were interrupted by the Starks’ front door opening and a small child in a swimsuit and using a towel as a cape came barreling down the stairs of the brownstone. 

“UNCLE STEEEEEEEVE,” Morgan’s battle cry echoed through the block as she launched herself into her uncle’s waiting arms. 

“Oh, and Uncle Steve’s boyfriend, and it is nice to meet you” she turned slightly in Steve’s arms and held out her hand, with a tone of forced politeness that told Steve Pepper had been practicing with her. “I am Morgan Maria Stark and I am six-and-one-half-years old. How old are you?”

“Morgan!” Pepper’s exasperated voice sounded from the top of the steps. “Not everyone is quite as excited to share that information as you are.”

“Sorry, Mommy,” Morgan said in a tone that let Bucky know she wasn’t sorry at all. “Uncle Steve, don’t forget you promised me pancakes the size of my head.”

Steve gave Morgan a loud kiss on her forehead as he walked her towards the front door. “I could never forget pancakes the size of your head, Bug. But it seems like _you_ forgot something.”

“What?” 

“Your shoes, and your swim bag, little miss,” Pepper replied. “And please let there be protein as part of the post-swimming meal.”

“Bacon is usually present with pancakes,” Steve replied, leaning in to kiss Pepper on her cheek. Pepper swatted at Steve and pulled Bucky in for a hug. 

“Her two current idiots forget that she has arteries,” Pepper addressed Bucky. “If there’s turkey bacon-”

“Pep, you wound me,” Steve said dramatically. “Me and Bug always eat healthy together, don’t we, Bug?”

Morgan looked back and forth between her mom and her uncle. With wide eyes she nodded, but Bucky noticed her fingers twisted behind her back. _Smart kid_. 

“Sure,” Pepper rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Morgan, can you put your shoes on, please, and make sure your goggles and shammy are in your bag?” Turning back to the men, she continued. “Listen, Tony and I are going to -”

“-not be leaving the house, so make sure you text on your way home from the diner!” The man himself appeared in the foyer and pulled his wife into a quick kiss. After a quick greeting to both Bucky and Steve, he lowered his voice, “Steve, please notice the new swimsuit, it’s been a thing.”

Steve did a quick double take at the suit Morgan was sporting under her towel-cape and grinned. “Morgan! Are those gills on your suit?”

Bag completely forgotten, Morgan began dancing around and pointing at all of the shiny pieces of fabric on her suit, meant to imitate scales. “No,” she giggled, “silly Uncle Steve. Gills are what fish breathe out of. These are scales.”

Steve hit himself on his forehead. “Silly me,” he grinned. “So when fish breathe, and they make this face, they’re using gills?”

Before Pepper could prevent it, Steve and Morgan were pretending they were fish and making fish faces at each other as they ran through the lower floor of the Stark house. Tony smiled after them and then turned his attention to Bucky. “He’s like this with her all the time, so I guess it’s better you know now.”

The look on Bucky’s face could really only be described as ‘schmoopy’, and so Tony continued with a chuckle. “Never mind then.”

Bucky shook his head as though to clear it and blushed slightly. “Sorry, were you talking to me?”

Pepper and Tony both laughed and called for Steve and Morgan to get their acts together, otherwise Morgan would be late. After a few double-and-tripple checks of Morgan’s swim bag, the trio were off on the six-block walk to the YMCA. 

Bucky was content to be quiet for most of the walk, letting Morgan chatter away about a kid at school she clearly didn’t like. At a stoplight about two blocks from the Y, Morgan abruptly let go of Steve’s hand and took Bucky’s. 

“Testing it out,” she announced. “Mr. Bucky, have you ever seen _Amphibia_ because it’s my favorite.”

“You know, Miss Morgan,” Bucky said. “I can’t say I have.”

“Oh, that’s alright, we can watch it together with Uncle Steve because he loves it,” Morgan had an impish smile as she said that last line. 

Steve smirked at Bucky. “Bug knows full well I don’t love that show but that I’ll watch anything with her.”

Bucky’s heart skipped a small beat as he watched the pair grin at each other and then he had to focus on Morgan again because she was explaining the entire show at a rapid rate. Her monologue lasted until she was taken into the changing room by one of the swim instructors and he and Steve joined the other watchers - guardians and parents - on the bleachers in the natatorium. The pair settled into comfortable small talk with each other and some of the folks around them who Steve clearly knew. 

“She wants to try for swim team,” Steve explained a little bit later as they watched Morgan practice her backstroke. “I was a lifeguard for a while, so I volunteered to schlep her here and give Tony and Pepper some actual time together once a week.”

“Are there pictures of this era of your life?” Bucky asked innocently, sucking just a little too hard on the straw of his drink as he did. 

Steve blushed. “There may be.”

Bucky whipped out his phone and shot off a quick text before shoving it back in his pocket.. 

“Did you just ask Pepper for pictures for your spank bank?”

“Unashamedly so,” Bucky confirmed and leaned over to kiss Steve quickly. 

Steve rolled his eyes and was about to make some sort of sassy retort when he heard Morgan’s voice. 

“MR. BUCKY.” She was propped up on the side of the pool, pushing her hair off of her goggles and grinning widely as she yelled towards them, her small voice echoing through the room. “I’VE DECIDED I LIKE YOU. CAN YOU COME TO THE DINER WITH ME AND UNCLE STEVE?”

“MISS MORGAN, I’D BE HONORED,” Bucky hollered back. Morgan gave them a quick thumbs-up and swam back to join her class. 

“So, I’m Bug-approved,” Bucky said softly as he wound his fingers through Steve’s. 

Steve hummed in agreement and smiled. “The most crucial approval of them all.”

________________________

Later that night, after two orgasms for each of them because fair was fair, Bucky was snuggled up with his head on Steve’s chest. Steve’s hands trailed lazily through Bucky’s hair as they talked about the day.

“I realized something today,” Steve said quietly and Bucky’s breath hitched ever so slightly. 

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been waiting for this big moment, this special think like would happen on a Jumbotron, like I thought that’s how it would always happen.”

“Sweetheart, I have literally no idea what you’re talking about.”

Steve chuckled and Bucky’s soul was warmed by the soft vibrations. “Today, when you were talking with Morgan about the merits of _Tangled_ versus _Frozen_ and doing it so earnestly-”

“Well, Rapunzel does not get enough credit-”

“-that’s when I realized I loved you.”

Bucky’s breath hitched once again before he shifted himself so he could meet Steve’s eyes. “You love me?”

Steve nodded and pulled his boyfriend until Bucky was laying on top of him. “I love how you listen to everyone so deeply about things that matter to them, even my six-and-one-half-year old niece. I love how passionate you are about art and how it can tell people’s stories. I love how kind you are, and what a jackass you are to me, and what a good friend you are, and I thought maybe it would take longer or something, but yeah. I love you, James Barnes. I really, really do.”

Bucky’s face split into a grin. “And I love how effortlessly you take care of people and how good you are, like you are a good man, and that just blows me away. I love how sarcastic you are but no one seems to know it but me and Pep and Tony, and I love how you love Morgan. I fell for you the first day you walked into my shop, Steve Rogers, and for me, it only keeps getting better, so yeah, I love you, too.”

Steve surged up to capture Bucky’s mouth and threaded his hand to Bucky’s neck, pulling him closer like he was trying to drink the essence of life out of Bucky’s mouth or something. It was a dramatic kiss for a dramatic moment, and Bucky chuckled inwardly to himself. His Stevie was a bit of a drama queen, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: Steve and Bucky join the Starks for Christmas and also check off my "the walls are too thin" bingo square. NSFW ahoy, y'all.
> 
> Also, that second hyper-functional woman Steve mentions? It's our Natasha and she shows up in the next chapter at the Stark Family Christmas. 
> 
> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family Christmas at the Stark's Cabin. 
> 
> The boys are both completely adorable and deliciously filthy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stucky Bingo Fill: "The Walls Are Thin, You Know" 
> 
> (and I wish I could do two squares, because a fun moment of role reversal showed up as well, but I'm a rule follower so I shall only claim one square!)

“Jesus, Stevie," Bucky swore. “How many kinds of lube do we need? It’s four days.”

Steve grinned at his newly christened fiancée. “It’s Christmas. Perhaps I’m in a giving mood.”

Bucky snorted and set the few wrapped gifts he had on the dresser. Steve made a move to start poking at the pile and Bucky slapped his hand. 

“No.”

“I just wanna see what you got everyone else,” Steve defended himself. 

“Wuddya gonna do? Shake the boxes?”

“It is a time honored tradition.” 

Bucky snorted again. “You are a terrible secret keeper.”

“I’m not!”

“Yes,” Bucky snuck a quick kiss. “My love, you are. But don’t worry - I got stuff for Tony, Pepper, Bug, and Nat, and that covers everyone who will be here, so you’ll find out soon enough.”

“I notice my name is missing,” Steve huffed. 

“I got you a ring, doofus. You wanted something else?” 

“Doesn’t count,” Steve said simply. “That’s just because you beat me to it.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “And like I’m an idiot who would put your gift in the same room as you? Stark has it.”

Steve pouted and Bucky chuckled. “You’re impossible.”

“Ah, but I’m _your impossible_,” Steve sat on the bed and pulled Bucky until he was standing right in front of him. 

“Damn straight,” Bucky smiled and leaned in for a kiss. 

It was different, Bucky rarely failed to note, to be with one person for this long. He and Steve had dated for two years before Bucky popped the question at the beginning of December. The beginning had been so exciting, learning all the ways that he could get Steve’s body to respond, all the ways he could teach Steve to play his like a fiddle. He had assumed that excitement would die down. 

Instead, it had shifted. As he pushed Steve back on the bed and crawled to straddle him, he knew just the right way use his tongue to get Steve to open his mouth wider. He knew that he was far enough up on Steve’s abdomen that he couldn’t quite make anything happen, but that Steve would quickly get fed up and grab Bucky’s hips and spin him so that it was Bucky flat against the bed and Steve on top. 

There was a comfort in knowing, for sure, but also an indescribable heat. This man was his for as long as they both had breath in their bodies and Bucky planned on using a good bit of that time finding new ways to make Steve scream. For in the midst of routine, surprises were even more tantalizing. 

“We have,” Steve panted through broken kisses as he nibbled his way along Bucky’s jaw, “about five minutes before Bug comes looking for us.” 

“Gotta jump start her sexual education somehow,” Bucky smirked as his hands ran through Steve’s hair, his fingernails scraping just the way he knew Steve loved. 

“James,” Steve scolded slightly. 

“Oh, am I gonna get punished for that?” Bucky’s eyes twinkled as Steve adjusted his head to look right into them. 

“Do you want to be?”

This was a new thing they were playing with - this consequences and punishments game. Steve was more hesitant than Bucky, but not by much. He just needed to hear Bucky ask still. 

Bucky nodded and Steve moved quickly towards his suitcase. Producing a butt plug, he smiled at Bucky. “Until we’re here again?”

Bucky’s eyes widened and he swallowed loudly. He made quick work of his pants and boxers and reached for one of the bottles of lube Steve had placed by their bedside. 

He squirted a generous amount onto his fingers and reached behind himself. He traced the edge of his hole a few times, coating it with lube, before gently pushing one finger in. The second followed shortly and then Bucky nodded to Steve that he was ready for the plug. 

Steve’s mouth covered Bucky’s just as he inserted the plug, causing Bucky to gasp into the kiss. 

“All night,” Steve whispered. “Whenever you shift, whenever you move. You’ll remember.” 

“And I’ll try my best not to tent my pants in front of our family,” Bucky chuckled. 

“I love you,” Steve smiled as Bucky put himself back together. They both headed to the bathroom to wash their hands and sneak a few more kisses before they headed down to Christmas Eve dinner.

_____________________________

“Are we ever meeting this mysterious Maria?” Tony addressed Nat as he passed the turkey.

Nat shrugged. “Soon, I think.”

“She’s an architect,” Morgan said emphatically, shoveling a spoonful of mashed potatoes into her mouth. 

“Wait, is that how you met her? Did she design the new space?” Bucky waved his fork at Nat, who blushed slightly and nodded. 

“Her firm, yeah,” Nat affirmed. “She came by for a tour of the gallery and I was complaining about how the loading dock wouldn’t fit any of Steve’s larger works and what kind of idiot didn’t remember they were designing a sculpture gallery.”

The four adults around the table all started laughing, having been on the receiving end of several of Nat’s patented rants. 

“Anyway, she yelled back at me and…”

“And you have a thing for people who aren’t scared of you,” Steve grinned at his new business partner across the table. 

“I’m not scared of you, Aunt Nat!” Morgan proclaimed. 

“I know, muffin, but most people are,” Nat poked at Morgan’s nose, which caused the girl to giggle. 

Pepper smiled at her daughter, “Morgan, finish your brussel sprouts, please. I see you just pushing them around the plate.”

Morgan dramatically rolled her eyes and huffed out an explanation that she _hated_ brussel sprouts and why would Pepper _ever_ think that she’d like brussel sprouts even though she’d eaten an entire bowl for dinner the week previous. Pepper’s nostrils flared slightly until Bucky caught her eye and gave her a wink. 

Piercing one of Morgan’s sprouts, Bucky waved it towards her with a small smirk. “$5 says you can’t finish your dinner before I finish mine and I’ll give you a one sprout head start.”

In her wise old age of nine, most people could not get Morgan to rise to such a challenge. Uncle Bucky - who was sporting a matching elf hat to hers, homemade the year previous - was the exception. 

“Loser has to wash dishes with Uncle Steve,” Morgan offered back. 

Bucky kicked his fiancée under the table but did not break eye contact with Morgan. “You have a deal.”

_____________________________

“You are just going to be the best father,” Steve whispered an hour or so later, as his arms were elbow deep in suds and Bucky was at his hip, drying a pot.

“I had her on the ropes,” Bucky winked, using one of Steve’s favorite phrases against him. 

“Sure you did, pal,” Steve laughed at the role reversal. “Sure you did.”

_____________________________

“Right theerrrrrrre,” Bucky growled on the harsh ‘r’ sound as Steve ground his hips down at just the right angle. Setting a rhythm, Steve continued - with one hand balancing himself on the headboard and one hand setting a matching rhythm on Bucky’s dick - until Bucky finished.

“No, you too,” Bucky breathed when Steve paused. 

“Are you sure? That’s the longest you’ve ever gone with the plug,” Steve’s voice was gentle and it only served to make Bucky more determined that Steve would find his release as well. 

“If I’m yours, then my ass is too, babe, use it as you need,” Bucky winked and grabbed Steve’s hips. “Now, are you staying here or are we switching positions?”

Steve worried his bottom lip and then a devilish grin crept across his face. “Is your mouth mine, too?”

Bucky’s eyes glazed for a beat as he nodded. They fumbled a bit as they separated - Steve had to steal one more kiss, Bucky had to make sure his hips didn’t crack as he moved because life after thirty was a true gift sometimes - and Steve cleaned them up a little bit before round two. 

Steve supposed he should have known Bucky would be a bit of a stickler for cleanliness - his work was so sterile, after all - but he’d really come to appreciate Bucky’s peculiarities. He didn’t find it sexy to go to sleep covered in their come, didn’t find it sexy to suck Steve off after Steve had been in him. Steve had partners in the past who reveled in being sweaty and sticky and Bucky’s affinity for soap was a nice change. 

Once the cleansing rituals were done - complete with sass, snark, and sarcasm because they didn’t really know any other way to communicate - Steve arranged himself laying back on the pillows. Bucky crawled on top of his body, draping himself like a particularly fuzzy blanket, and started kissing his way around Steve’s jaw, down his neck, and across his chest. 

“Two fucking years,” Bucky murmured, “and I still can’t quite get over your Dorito proportions.”

Steve swatted his head. “Well, I’m still a goner for your eyes, and those won’t change. My Dorito will probably become a Triscuit soon.”

Bucky paused to raise his eyes to Steve’s. “And I will love you in that shape or whatever shape, just like I love you in this one, and still think I’m the fucking luckiest asshole on the planet, so if that was a thing where you were all getting up in your head about it, stop.”

Steve flushed slightly but nodded. He loved it when he and Bucky were too gone in their pleasure to talk, of course he did. But his favorite moments? His _favorite_ ones were these - where they were both themselves; beautiful and broken and healed and exposed. He felt loved by Bucky all the time, but in these moments he felt _known_. 

Satisfied he’d been understood, Bucky resumed his work, nipping and sucking around Steve’s right nipple and then his left, one hand drifting toward Steve’s dick as he went. Grasping it firmly, he stroked as he worked Steve’s left nipple to a hard point. 

“Warewjklfe,” Steve groaned and Bucky grinned. 

“Oh, just wait, handsome, I just got started.”

_____________________________

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart,” Steve rolled over to kiss Bucky good morning.

Bucky grinned sleepily. “Time?”

“5:45. Bug knows to stay in her room for 15 more minutes, so I’m going to go get coffee and make sure the presents are all laid out.”

Bucky nodded and burrowed back under the covers. Steve shoved his feet into slippers - even the under-floor heating wasn’t full defense against New York winters - and grabbed a hoodie on his way out the door. 

Steve stumbled downstairs to find Tony at the kitchen table - wearing pajamas and a smirk, and drinking coffee. 

“What is that face,” Steve asked as he punched the appropriate buttons on the Keurig to produce Bucky’s favorite dark roast.

“The walls are thin, you know. I mean, I designed the house, and I’m a genius, but evidently your orgasms defeat drywall.”

Steve whipped around to see Tony busily swiping at his tablet, smirk still plastered on his face. 

“All I’m saying is that I’m glad you guys already had a merry Christmas,” Tony continued. 

Steve swallowed his shock and responded in an even tone. “Well, we were just trying to emulate the Great Turks and Caicos Incident of 2014.”

Tony grinned. “You’re never outdoing that one, buddy. Pep and I were in rare form.”

“Challenge accepted,” Steve smiled over the rim of his coffee mug as Tony barked out a laugh. “Now, Nat told me to preheat the oven for the cinnamon rolls, so I’ll do that and you go get your daughter.”

Tony nodded and checked his watch as he swallowed the last of his coffee. “Merry Happy, Steven,” he smiled, and pressed a kiss to his friend’s cheek as he passed. “I’m glad you and your horndog fiancée are here.”

“Well, I’m only here for Morgan and Pep, you’re just a nuisance I’ve been tolerating for twenty years.”

“Ah, but I’m your _favorite_ nuisance,” Tony winked from the bottom of the stairs, using one of their little family’s favorite comebacks. 

“Merry happy, pal,” Steve smiled back and grabbed a mug from the cabinet to fix his fiancée some coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter brings us to the night before their wedding. See you then, pals!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stucky Bingo Fill: Slow Dancing

“So, tomorrow,” Pepper smiled at Steve.

“For as long as we both shall live,” he smiled back and rolled the whiskey glass in his hand. It was the weekend before Halloween and the pair were sitting on the front porch of a huge cabin outside of Portland, Maine. Autumn was thriving in New England - the leaves were a gorgeous collection of colors, the air was crisp, and the days were shorter - and it was easily Steve’s favorite time of year. Which is why, when Bucky said he didn’t care when they got married, Steve jumped at picking a date in October.

“Are you ready?” She asked, mirroring the question he had asked her many years before.

“No,” he replied, “but yes. I know enough from watching you and Tony try to do this marriage thing that I have no idea what I’m really getting into, but also that I know it’s him I’m doing it with. So, yes, I’m completely ready to make those vows, and no, I’m scared shitless of what lies ahead.”

She laughed, a crystal sound that danced around the room and served to settle him. Pepper had been his person since before he really knew how valuable that was. There was absolutely no way he could make vows to Bucky without Pepper standing at his back. “I remember telling Tony that I was underprepared but willing to figure it out.”

“Underprepared,” Steve replied, rolling the word across his tongue. “I like that.”

Pepper took a sip of her trademark vodka tonic and continued. “I mean, we were together for, what, four years already when we got married, so I thought I knew him pretty well. But I remember sitting with you in the dress shop and looking at gowns and thinking that this was what I was going to wear in pictures we would look at for the rest of our lives, because I was pledging myself to Tony for the rest of my natural life.”

She paused and then continued. “It was like a gut punch and I lost my breath for a moment. And then I looked back down at my ring and remembered that his proposal was not to be perfect, or to join him in a life he’d already built, but to build one together. I had no idea, really, what that meant, but I was game to find out.”

Steve smiled. “I know I’m 36, but I feel the same way.”

“Good,” was Pepper’s response. “Because anyone who thinks they know exactly what marriage is - even those of us in it - are idiots.”

He laughed and nodded.

She continued, “I mean, fundamentally, it’s simple and uniform. Two people, saying they’ll choose each other over everything else, forever. But in practice? Hoooooo buddy, it’s a complicated, messy, beautiful shitshow - but when it works, the best thing you’ll ever be a part of.”

Steve nodded again. They were alone out on the porch because everyone else was either inside - like Tony and Morgan - or down in Portland itself. As much as Steve wanted to join them, there was something in his soul that told him he needed a quiet last night with the woman who had been his family since before he could talk.

The next day, he was going to stand before a small crowd - only about 25 people, really - and make vows that would bind them together in a covenant. Steve remembered going to church as a child and hearing about the sacred vows of marriage, and while his participation in the institution stopped in his early adolescence, his belief in some of the teachings had never wavered. The seriousness of what he and Buck were about to do was among them.

They’d been very, very intentional about who they invited to be a part of things.

_“You know,” Bucky said one morning in June, about six months after they got engaged. “There’s that part in the wedding ceremony where they ask the crowd if they’ll help the couple keep their vows. If we’re not close enough to somebody that they could really keep that promise, then why are they at our wedding?” _

_S_ _teve blinked a few times, processing that thought. “You’re right, babe. That’s completely right.” _

_Bucky grinned. “I am the brains of the operation.”_

Steve asked Nat and Pepper to stand with him, Bucky had Sam and Darcy. Tony was asked to officiate and they decided on having it all happen in a living room of a cabin that Bucky found online. Morgan was doing a reading and walking her Uncle Steve down the aisle, a role she had asked for and Steve cried so hard at the request that Bucky had kissed her forehead and said that sounded swell. The adjoining barn would serve as the reception venue and Darcy had insisted on fitting it out with fairy lights and a long banquet table where they’d eat family style.

The planning had been relatively easy - Bucky had pitched a small fit when the caterer cancelled their original order of a mid-reception chicken and waffle cart when they said 25 people wouldn’t eat that much food (_"Steve, they haven’t met our friends. Or Morgan, for that matter"_) - but they came to agreements about everything else really quickly.

And now, they were about 20 hours away and Steve was feeling… right.

“So, it’s about three years since we met,” Steve said, “and I feel like I’ve become the curator of the Bucky Barnes museum.”

Pepper smiled, “tell me more.” Steve grinned. “All these small moments, these tiny ticks about our lives together, I’m the only one that knows them. Just like curators of museums know everything that’s in the archives, but also know what gets shows - I know the pieces of Bucky that none of you know, as well as the ones you do. Like, for example, he loves to order red curry from Thai Tanic over on 35th. However, it is so spicy that his nose starts to run about three bites in, but he never has tissues around, so I always make sure we have extra napkins.”

Pepper cracked up. “That’s amazing. God, the Tony Stark museum would be something.”

“Or, Bucky cannot watch videos of dogs getting adopted without crying, he absolutely hates the feel of leather directly on his skin but will not get rid of that leather jacket Clint bought him, and he never walks by Girl Scouts selling cookies without buying a box of Thin Mints. I think we have seven boxes in the freezer right now.”

“Tony wants a pet rabbit really badly,” Pepper supplied, “but also has a hyper-sensitive sense of smell, so he’s afraid to. He is a complete sucker for any YouTube video of a veteran coming home from war, and is really, really afraid of wooden roller coasters.”

“Wooden roller coasters?” She shrugged. “Something about iron being the strongest material and wood cracking under pressure, I don’t know.”

“So I get to curate the Bucky Barnes museum for the rest of my life,” Steve concluded, “and that feels like a mighty privilege.”

“The fun of that analogy, too, is that there are usually a few assistant curators,” Pepper replied. “So, there are pieces of me that you have that Tony doesn’t - so it’s like you have your own exhibit room.”

“I like that,” Steve smiled, “because of course that’s true.”

“I love you, Steven,” Pepper said as she reached for his hand. “And I am so proud to be your best woman.”

“I love you, Virginia,” Steve brought their joined hands up to his mouth to kiss her knuckles. “And I couldn’t do this without you.”

* * *

“And now,” the lead singer of the small band said into the microphone, “we want to invite Steve and Bucky to the floor for their first dance.” The small gathering hooted and hollered as the upbeat strains of “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnificent Zeros came from the band.

The pair moved and swayed and laughed as the lyrics_ "home is wherever I’m with you"_ washed over them.

Nearly everyone had raised their eyebrows when the pair had shared their first dance song, unconventional as it was. Except for Darcy, who had just smiled and nodded.

_“Unexpected, a little weird, and yet completely schmoopy and sentimental. Sounds like the Rogers-Barnes brand.” _

Steve started singing at the second verse - the part he loved the most - echoing the quirky words that screamed comfort, home, and choice.

> _Man, oh man, you're my best friend _
> 
> _I scream it to the nothingness _
> 
> _There ain't nothing that I need _
> 
> _Well, hot and heavy, pumpkin pie _
> 
> _Chocolate candy, Jesus Christ _
> 
> _Ain't nothing please me more than you _
> 
> _Ah, home, let me come home _
> 
> _Home is wherever I'm with you _

The song finished and the band welcomed other couples to the dance floor. Tony tumbled out with Morgan, while Pepper grabbed Sam. Nat and Maria - newly engaged themselves - meandered out, but Darcy simply grabbed her phone and started snapping photos right alongside the photographer.

Bucky and Steve were eventually split up - Pepper cut in to dance with Steve and Bucky headed off to get them both something to drink - but six or seven songs later, they found themselves swaying to the band’s cover of “Power of Two” by the Indigo Girls.

“Pretty good day,” Bucky murmured.

“It was fine,” Steve, the perpetual little shit that he was, grinned at his husband.

“Sure, good practice for my next husband, I guess,” Bucky played along.

“Getting rid of me so quickly, Barnes?”

“I think you’ll find that’s Barnes-Rogers.”

“Huh, I suppose it is,” Steve smiled and kissed Bucky slowly.

When the kiss ended, Steve’s eyes went wide.

“What is it, babe?” Bucky tightened his grip on Steve ever so slightly, worried something was wrong.

“I forgot to thank you for my gift,” Steve smiled. “It was perfect.”

A tinge of pink showed across Bucky’s cheekbones. “It wasn’t nothing, baby.”

“Okay, so we’re doing that,” Steve smirked. “Fine, I guess the note only made me cry so hard that Pepper had to find an entirely new box of tissues and the whole thing at the end about how you wish you knew my ma was just too much, and then the bit about -”

Bucky cut him off with a kiss. “Baby, I meant every single word and will for the rest of my life. So many years I had nothing, and then I found my little weird family and they’re great, but you? You’re my home.”

Steve felt his eyes well again and tears threatened to spill. Bucky saw and pushed them away with the pad of his thumb.

“For as long as we both shall live,” Steve whispered.

“Oh, long past that, Mr. Dorito Man,” Bucky said. “I’m haunting your ass until you join me wherever we’re going next.”

“End of the line?” Steve smiled into another kiss.

“Past the end of the line,” Bucky corrected as he pulled away. “Straight on into forever.”

Steve smiled and kissed the top of Bucky’s forehead as the band sang on.

_I took us for better and I took us for worse _

_Don't you ever forget it _

_Now the steel bars between me and a promise _

_Suddenly bend with ease _

_The closer I'm bound in love to you _

_The closer I am to free _

_So we're okay _

_We're fine _

_Baby I'm here to stop your crying _

_Chase all the ghosts from your head _

_I'm stronger than the monster beneath your bed _

_Smarter than the tricks played on your heart _

_We'll look at them together then we'll take them apart _

_Adding up the total of a love that's true _

_Multiply life by the power of two_

"I love you, James Buchanan Barnes," Steve murmured as the song ended and the pair moved towards the table where Pepper and Darcy had arranged the cake. 

"I love you, Steven Grant Rogers," Bucky grinned. "I'm so glad you chose my shop."

"Me too, baby. Me too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you have it, pals. The yahoos live happily ever after. Thanks to Mark Blankenship for the museum curator analogy - which I think fits our lads perfectly - and to everyone who has cheer-read, or beta-d, or commented, or kudos'd. Five bingo fills later and I still don't have bingo! Oh well, guess I'll just have to keep writing Steve & Bucky falling in love...

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) and yell at me to write faster. It frequently works - especially if you send me gifs of our favorite idiots.


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